Valve mechanism for planters.



D. D.DO0LEY.

VALVE MECHANISM FOR PLANTERS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3. I914.

Patented Feb. 13,1917.

Fig.

269.1 Wit/2.9.9.5 as w UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DELMA-R D. DOOLEY, OF ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR '10 DEERE & MANSUR COMPANY, OF MOLINE, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION DIP ILLINOIS.

VALVE MECHANISM FOR PLANTERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 13, 1917.

Application filedjfuly 3, 1914. Serial No. 848,906.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DELMAR D. DooLnY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rock Island, in the county of Rock Island and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Valve Mechanisms for Planters, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to improvements in planting mechanisms, particularly to improvements in the valve mechanisms or devices which a-rrest, accumulate, and finally deliver the kernels or seeds to the ground.

Figure 1 is a vertical section showing the initial seed-delivering mechanism, proper, togetherwith the shank, or boot, and the valve mechanism of a planter embodying my improvements.

Fig. 2 is a section showing the parts of the valve mechanism when they are thrown to their extreme position for drilling;

Fig. 3 is a view showing the parts of the valve mechanism at the time when a hill of kernels is completed in the upper part of the chuteway and the previous hill of kernels is in position on the lowermost resting place;

Figs. 4 and 5 parts detached.

As before stated, the present invention relates more particularly to matters incident to the construction and mode of operation of the valves in planters. As they. can be used in connection with such other parts of planting mechanisms as are found in either of many styles of machines, it is not necessary to here give full illustration or description of the latter. However, enough of a planting mechanism is conventionally or diagrammatically illustrated to indicate the relationships of the valve mechanism to the various parts of the entirety.

As concerns the other elements, suffice it to say. that A indicates the front frame, or runner frame, B, the bars of the rear frame, which at their front ends are hinged to the former, and are carried by the axle D, the latter, in turn, resting upon the covering ground wheels C. The front frame carries seeding mechanisms for two rows of plants, together with chutes or down guides for the seed, and the furrow-opening runners. Power is taken from the ground wheels and axle, as by sprockets at P and G, through are perspectives of valve chain F, to the seeder shaft L, which by gearing at M and N, imparts intermitting rotary movements to the Seed-delivering devices, the shaft L being connected to the.

shaft I by gearing at J and a clutch at H. The tappet wire, commonly used with the machine, engages with forks on the check heads E, which impart reciprocatory rocking movements to' the shaft E, the latter being adapted to open and close the valves below the seeding mechanism, and also to close the parts of the clutch at H.

As above indicated, the. details of the different sets of parts referred to do not as details, enter into the construction of the valve mechanism. But'they should be had in mind as correlated therewith inattaining the purposes of the present invention.

a casting indicated by 1, upon which rests the stationary bottom element 5, that supports the seed receptacle 0 and the movable parts of the seed-delivering devices, including gear ring 7 and the seeding plates at 8, together with the cut-off and knocker de vices; all of which latter, also, may be of any preferred form.

The seed-delivering devices are intermittingly actuated, and at'each actuation receive some of the seeds in series and deliver them, seria tc'm, to the orifice or throat at 6.

There are three valves or seed-arresting devices in this mechanism, they being indicated by 10, 11 and 12. Above these respectively are the chambers 13,14: and 15. There are but two main valve parts which are movable, one at the upper end of the shank and the other at the lower. The movable element at the upper end comprises the vertical or approximately vertical walls 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23. These wall sections are preferably cast integral with a vertical face plate 24, from which they project inward. The arresting plates or valves 10 and 11 are preferably cast integral with the companion face plate 25 oppositely arranged to that of 24-, and held stationarily in the upper end of the shank and in its interior chamber. The face plates 2A. and are pivotally connected together at 26. The rock shaft E has a crank arm 27 which, through a. link 28, is connected to the swinging valve casting by a pivot- 29.

hen a tappet strikes a fork or either of the check heads E, the rock shaft E throws the arm 27 downward, which results in pulling the upper swinging valve element (plate 2% and its attachments) from the position shown in Fig. 1 toward that shown in Fig. 2. The spring connected with the rock shaft and the tappet fork returns the shaft to normal position and swings the plate 21 and the parts carried thereby back to the position shown in Fig. A. During these movements a hill of seed, say three corn kernels, is carried from one position to another at the upper end of the boot, and is finally delivered over the plate sect-ion 11 into the main vertical chuteway 30, through which it passes to the lower valve. At 12 there is an inclined surface formed on the metal of the shank upon which the seeds of a hill can temporarily rest. 16 is a boxlike casting which cooperates with the wall 12 to temporarily hold the kernels. 31 is a movable wall piece adapted to close and open the end of the boxlike structure 16. It

is pivoted at 18 to the stationary part of the shank. It is formed with a finger or arm 32 positioned to have a slot or elongated opening betweenit and the plate 31. 33 is a finger or cross pin carried by the valve part 16 and positioned in this slot. 16 is a rod extending from the valve box 16 up to the pivot at 14. lVhen the rock shaft E is moved by a tappet, it pushes downward on the rod 16 and the valve box 16, and the latter, in turn, through the pin 33, pushes backward the closing plate 31.

The diaphragm or wall 2 in the shank is positioned in relation to the front wall 1 in such way as to leave a substantially inclosed chamber for holding and protecting the valve rod 16. Fig. 4 illustrates the parts in their normal positions; the chute section 6 is open, that at 13 is closed against the passage of seed therefrom, and that at let against the entrance of seed.

The operations of the parts that have been described will be readily understood upon examination of the drawings. Assuming the parts to be in the positions in Fig. 2, and that a check row wire is in position across the field and on one of the heads E, when a tappet impinges on the fork, the latter gives a rocking movement to shaft E; the arm 27 swings downward; it simultaneously pushes downward on the lower valve box 16 and pulls forward the upper rocking valve plate 24. The downward movement of the valve box 16 opens the foot of the passageway, permits the three kernels of the hill on wall 12 to drop (or positively pushes them) downward and backward. At the same time, at the upper end of the valve apparatus, the walls 21 and 20 are moving forward, the former opening the passageway into the valve pocket at 14, and the latter (20) pushing the accumulated kernels from the valve plate 10 off there from and dropping them onto the valve plate 11. They are held on this plate 11 by the vertical wall sections at 21, 22, the lower edge of the latter moving close to the upper surface of the plate 11. These actions occur during the time (an eighth of a second or thereabouts) that the wire tappet is positively engaging with the fork.

Then, after the tappet escapes from the fork, the spring at 3st returns the latter, the rock shaft, and the parts connected thereto, to the positions shown in Fig. #1, that is, to their initial positions. This results in instantly drawing up the valve box 16 and the closing plate 31, and then results in cansing the plate section at 22 (in the backward swing of the upper valve plate) to push the kernels received during the first stroke of the fork on the valve plate 11, up to the top of that plate, whereupon they slide over the part 11, drop through the boot passage 30, and are caught by the parts 12, 16 and 31.

As soon as these movements of the valve parts have been completed and the fork is returned, the throatway at 6 again registers with the chamber at 13 and the parts are ready to receive the first kernel of the next series of three to drop from the seed plate, all of the series being caught upon and held by the stationary valve plate 10. After that the parts are ready for the next valve throw caused by the action of the next tappet on the wire.

The various parts of the machine are so related to each other and to the distances between the tappets on the wire, that the planting cycle (including the entire movement of the seed plate, and the entire movement of the valve element) shall commence and stop in an interval of time much shorter than that occupied by the travel of the machine from hill to hill, that is, from tappet to tappet. If the hills are planted 42 inches apart, the plate and valve cycle will be equal to only 28 inches, or thereabouts, of the travel from hill to hill. Consequently,

there is ample time to provide for correc tions of any errors that might result from the departure from the theoretically correct peripheral travel of the wheels C, which travel governs the movements of the seed plate, irrespective of the travel of the valve parts. The valve pocket at 1% above plate 10 can. with assurance, be held closed long enough to receive the third kernel of the next hill, even though the seed plate should, because of irregularities of movement of the ground wheels, not stop its rotary movements at the theoretically correct instant.

By providing two resting places for the kernels, at horizontal planes, which are close together, and are both close to the seed plate or dropping mechanism, I overcome the serious difficulties that have been met with in single-kernel-drop planters that have been heretofore made, and which have been incident to the fact that the time between the closing of the lower valve and the final release of the kernels from their last support above the lower valve has been so short that there would be leakage of hills or kernels, or breaking of the kernels because of being caught by the lower valve parts just as they were closing. The accumulation of the kernels of the hill (as they drop from the seed-delivering mechanism) upon a valve plate such as that at 10, and then, before finally dropping them, catching them on an intermediate valve device, as at 11 (which is remote from the lower valve, and whose presence gives as surance that the kernels will be arrested before finally dropping toward that valve) increase the accuracy in the planting.

The wall plate 23 on valve plate 2a, although it moves with that plate, is always in a position such as to serve as a guide for the kernels and lead them with precision into the main down chute or passageway 30.

If hills containing three kernels each are taken by the seeder plate from the mass in the seed holder and delivered through the passageway to the ground a plate with predetermined arrangement of cells is used; and in case the hills are to contain four kernels, each, a plate'of another conformation is employed. I use the term hill for brevity to indicate the set of kernels which are passed together downward through the mechanism to be deposited at one point in the ground.

From the above description it will be seen that each hill of kernels is at each successive stage of advance received upon a stationary supporting plate or surface, and that those of each hill are, at the successive actuations of the operating mechanism, positively engaged by a pushing device which carries them to a horizontal line, over which they are all dropped simultaneously.

lVhen it is desired to use the planter for drilling (in contradistinction from hilldropping) it is only necessary to turn the rock shaft back to the rearmost position which it reaches when drawn by the tappet in hill-dropping and fasten it in that position in any of the well known ways. Such movement of the rock shaft throws the crank arm 27, the link 28 and the valve plate 24 with its cross wall sections 19, 21 and 22 to their extreme outer position, and

at the same time the lower valve rod 15 and valve box 16 are pushed down and all are fastened in their open position. This results in providing and maintaining an.

intermittingly withdrawing seed from said' holder, a short chute immediately below the plate to receive hills of seed therefrom, a chamber immediately below the short chute having a stationary bottom 10 and a cut-off 9, a second chamber situated in vertical lines remote from those of the main chuteway, and having a stationary bottom 11 inclined away from said chuteway, and vibrating devices for positively advancing the hill of seeds from the first stationary bottom to the second, and then positively advancing them upward on the second stationary bottomto the main chuteway, and adapted to deliver them to the chuteway at points in unobstructed paths 011 vertical lines to said bottom valve.

2. In a planting mechanism, the combination of an initial intermittingly acting seed delivering device, a chuteway or guide, a valve at the lower end of said chuteway near the ground, two successively acting seed arresting devices in different horizontal planes but relatively close together and close to the initial seed delivering devices, the second seed arresting device having a stationary bottom inclined away from the chuteway and means positively engaging with the seeds for pushing them off from the said arresting devices at each actuation of the seed delivering device, the lower of the said two arresting devices holding the seed until the lower valve is closed.

3. In a planting mechanism, the combination of an initial intermittingly acting seed delivering device, a passageway for the seeds delivered thereby having a short upper section immediately below the seed delivering device, a second section which is relatively short and normally closed against the passage of seed, a third section which is relatively short and normally closed to the entrance of seed, and a fourth section which is relatively long, a valve at the bottom of the fourth section, and means adapted to positively engage with the seeds at the lower ends of each of said sections of the passageway and push those from the second section to the third, those from the third section to the fourth, and those in the fourth section to the ground.

4. The combination with a seed delivering device, 01 a down passage in four sections, means for delivering a plurality of seeds to the first section, means for positively engaging with the seeds in the three lower sections and forcing them from the second section to the third, from the third section to the fourth, and from the fourth section to the ground during each actuation of the seeding mechanism, and means for preventing the passage of seeds from the first to the second section during; the time of the aforesaid deiivery from the second section to the third and from the third to the fourth.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature, in presence of two itnesses.

DELMAR D. DUDLEY. Vitnesses O. F. LUMDAHL, C. R. BOHMAN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

